Syllabus
1. Internal Security: system, institutions and policies at national and supranational level
2. Overview of main actors and institutions of EU Internal Security policy
3. Overview of historical and legal development of the Justice and Home Affairs agenda
4. Security environment of the EU and security threats
5. Theoretical debates about EU Internal Security
6. Actors, institutions, and processes of EU Internal Security
7. Schengen System (IT databases, police cooperation)
8. Border Security System of the Schengen Area (Frontex)
9. EU immigration and asylum policy
10. Europol, Eurojust
11. EU counter-terrorism policy
12. EU counter-radicalization policy
13. Assessment of EU Internal Security System and its future development
Annotation
The course offers a comprehensive overview of internal security policies of the European Union. The area of Justice and Home Affairs has been one of the most dynamically developing fields of EU competencies. Even though this agenda has been legally part of the EU only since the Maastricht Treaty (1993), it has gradually expanded the role of the EU institutions and agencies to areas of immigration, asylum, protection of external borders, criminal justice, organized crime, radicalization, and terrorism under broad heading of Lisbon Treaty’s “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice” (2009). Even though, the EU Member States did not agree on a standard strategic document guiding integration and policy implementation in internal security after 2014, the migration crisis and a sequence of terrorist attacks in Europe in the following years brought the issues of home affairs on top of EU’s agenda.
The course provides its students with both factual knowledge about the developments and the current role of the EU in providing domestic or homeland security, as well as with analytical skills necessary to assess the European internal security system with all its objectives, functions, instruments and decisive actors. Special emphasis is given to policy options regarding further development of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.
The course consists of 13 classes (80 minutes), starting with an introductory session and concluded with a final written test. Standard structure of each class includes: 1) discussion about news from the area of EU internal security (10 minutes) 2) discussion clarifying difficult points of the required reading (10 minutes) 3) interactive lecture on a given subject (60 minutes)
Students are expected to have read and familiarized themselves with the required reading for each lecture (articles/documents). Continuous work throughout the whole semester is required.